Lady Crusaders fall to Pfeiffer on penalty kicks in league title match

Richard Walker

Saturday

Nov 9, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 9, 2013 at 4:53 PM

BELMONT – After 110 minutes of soccer, college soccer fans, players and coaches know that determining a championship on penalty kicks is destined to create sudden euphoria for one team and sudden dejection for the other.

The Belmont Abbey College women’s soccer team enjoyed the positive side of that result in Thursday’s semifinal win over Barton.

On Saturday, the Lady Crusaders unfortunately had to deal with the opposite emotion as visiting Pfeiffer was able to celebrate winning the 2013 Conference Carolinas on Alumni Field after a 5-3 penalty kicks victory.

The teams had played to a 1-1 tie through two 45-minute halves and two 10-minute sudden death overtime periods.

“At this level, when you’re playing for a championship, you’ve got to convert opportunities,” said Belmont Abbey coach Mike Lynch, whose school was playing in its ninth consecutive league championship match. “We had chances to convert and avoid penalty kicks and we didn’t convert.”

While the Abbey is 14-3-3 overall after finishing second in the Conference Carolinas regular season race at 7-1-1, Lynch didn’t think his team would be an at-large selection to the upcoming NCAA Division II tournament.

“We’re a remote possibility for that,” said Lynch, whose team has advanced to three of the past four NCAA Division II national tournaments.

As league champion, Pfeiffer (13-6-1) gets an automatic berth.

The Lady Crusaders scored first when Robyn Hatcher’s left-footed boot while being pulled down by Pfeiffer keeper Kate Halligan made it 1-0 in the 39th minute.

But while the Abbey enjoyed that lead at halftime, it didn’t last long.

Just two minutes into the second half, Aaliyah Jackson scored off a pass from Kayla Rodriguez to draw the Lady Falcons even.

The Abbey outshot Pfeiffer 15-12, including 2-1 in the overtime periods, before the contest was decided by penalty kicks.

Megan Nanney, Mariah Meuse and Cassidy Coutinho converted penalty kicks before Halligan blocked away Silvia Vazquez’s shot to the right corner, then Pfeiffer’s Brae Buster converted the Falcons fifth straight penalty kick into the top left corner for the game-winner.

The Falcons’ Rodriguez was named tournament most valuable player and was joined by teammates Jackson, Katie Collins, Madeline Gadd and Hannah Hill on the all-tournament team. Nanney, Laura Shelton and Mady Sully were Abbey’s all-tournament selections.

Pfeiffer also had 2012 Kings Mountain High graduate Mary Pasour on its roster. Pasour was a defensive substitute for the Falcons on Saturday.

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22

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